mabe starter problem not sure

yes it could be your starter. I had a simular problem sometimes car would start other times not. Usally it wouldn't start after i had driven a bit and had shut car off and went to start again. I believe in my case it was that the heat of the engine cooked the starter. What gauge wire did you use running your battery to the back? check that all the connections are tight. on my f-150 it would start sometimes and not others it turned out to be the relay on the fender. when your car doesn't fire try jumping the relay to see if it fires off that. if it does thats your problem. make sure park brake on and car in nutrel when you try that.

Rear mounted battery ground wiring. Follow this plan and you will have zero ground problems.

One 1 gauge or 1/0 gauge wire from battery negative post to a clean shiny spot on the chassis near the battery. Use a 5/16” bolt and bolt it down to make the rear ground. Use a 1 gauge or 1/0 gauge wire from the rear ground bolt to a clean shiny spot on the block.

One 4 gauge wire from the block where you connected the battery ground wire to the chassis ground where the battery was mounted up front. Use a 5/16” bolt and bolt down the 4 gauge engine to chassis ground, make sure that it the metal around the bolt is clean & shiny. This is the alternator power ground.

Crimp or even better, solder the lugs on the all the wire. The local auto stereo shop will have them if the auto parts store doesn't. Use some heat shrink tubing to cover the lugs and make things look nice.

The computer has a dedicated power ground wire with a cylindrical quick connect (about 2 ½”long by 1” diameter. It comes out of the wiring harness near the ignition coil & starter solenoid (or relay). Be sure to bolt it to the chassis ground in the same place as you bolted the alternator power ground. This is an absolute don’t overlook it item for EFI cars

You could temporarily move the battery to the engine compartment and re-ground the batt and connect the + line to the starter solenoid and see what happens. If the problem goes away then you have conduction issues.

If not, then start asking Jrichker (real politely) for help. He knows all when it comes to electrical. However, his advice about women should be taken lightly. (kidding)

Check all of your fusible links, all your ground wires, solenoid, make sure the battery terminals are good with little or no corrosion (fluid film spray works good for a grease/conductor), ensure the starter is good.

You problem can be from a number of things, most of which have already been discussed. I had a similar problem with my coupe when I owned it. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn't. I ripped the battery out to find that the starter ground wire on the negative cable was worn to where it was only hanging together by a couple threads. My battery was in the stock location, but it's something you may want to check before buying any new parts.

mustang-a-holic said:

If not, then start asking Jrichker (real politely) for help. He knows all when it comes to electrical. However, his advice about women should be taken lightly. (kidding)

Click to expand...

Two mysterious forces in the Universe -Electricty & Women. What man would claim to completely understand both of them?

After almost 60 years, I'm still trying...

In addition to the info already posted, Have you put a jumper battery on your battery to see if the issue goes away? That can help narrow things down.

You can have the battery load tested at the parts store.

Good luck.

hey jrichker, do you think this could be the problem with my car? i mean i'm leaning towards malfunctioning fuel delivery, but the way the guy has the battery mounted is in the rear, with the ground connected to a cut-off switch (which i installed) and its connects to inside the welle where the spare sits...is this unacceptable?

ZephyrMotorspor said:

hey jrichker, do you think this could be the problem with my car? i mean i'm leaning towards malfunctioning fuel delivery, but the way the guy has the battery mounted is in the rear, with the ground connected to a cut-off switch (which i installed) and its connects to inside the welle where the spare sits...is this unacceptable?

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Switching off the ground isn't a good idea.

For a battery cut off switch, see
http://www.moroso.com/catalog/categorydisplay.asp?catcode=42225
is the switch http://www.moroso.com/catalog/images/74102_inst.pdf is
the installation instructions. Use the super duty switch and the following tech
note to wire it and you will be good to go.

Use the Moroso plan for the alternator wiring and you risk a fire.
The 10 gauge wire they recommend is even less adequate that the stock
Mustang wiring.

There is a solution, but it will require about 40' of 18 gauge green wire.

Wire the battery to the two 1/4" posts as shown in the diagram.

The alternator requires a different approach. On the small alternator plug
there is a green wire. It is the sense lead that turns the regulator on when
the ignition switch is in the run position. Cut the green wire and solder the 40'
of green wire between the two pieces. Use some heat shrink to cover the
splices. See http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=7 for some excellent
help on soldering & using heat shrink tubing.

Run the green wire back to the Moroso switch and cut off the excess wire.
Try to run the green wire inside the car and protect it from getting cut or
chaffed. Crimp a 18 gauge ring terminal (red is 18 gauge color code for the crimp
on terminals) on each wire. Bolt one ring terminal to each of the 3/16" studs.
Do not add the jumper between the 1/4" stud and the 3/16" stud as shown it the
Moroso diagram.

How it works:
The green wire is the ignition on sense feed to the regulator. It supplies power
to the regulator when the ignition switch is in the run position. Turn the
Moroso switch to off, and the sense voltage goes away, the voltage
regulator shuts off and the alternator quits making power.

See the following website for some help from Tmoss (diagram designer) & Stang&2Birds (website host) for help on 88-90 wiring and lots more…

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/IgnitionSwitchWiring.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/fuel-alt-links-ign-ac.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/88-91eecPinout.gif

Diagram courtesy of Tmoss and Stang&2birds.

As I recall, nothing grounds to the strut tower.

If not mentioned, using a jumper cable to augment existing grounds (in parallel) can be a quick way of finding issues. When you parallel a cable and the electrical system performs better right afterwards, the cable that is being augmented is likely having issues.

Running a jumper from the motor to the frame, can be a real quick test and could allow the car to start easier.

Good luck.

2tru said:

ok guys.thx for all the help.i know it isnt the battery, so i need to check all my wires.i noticed one wire that is grounded to the top of the strut which the wire is barly hanging on.i think the wire is from the starter relay off the fender.if i have to, what kind of shop culd mabe fix my problem.thx

Click to expand...

Are you sure it's not the starter ground wire from the negative battery cable? That is supposed to be grounded right behind the battery but could have been moved. If it's coming from the starter relay, then I have no idea what it could be. What color is the wire?